Let’s say it works out even better for the Lakers down the road. Let’s say Adam Morrison finds a soul mate in the likewise quirky Phil Jackson — and they do have a connection, Jackson said, in that Morrison’s grandmother played high school basketball where Jackson’s father was a minister: Fairfield, Mont. — and Morrison gets to be decent in the next year or so.

What can the Lakers do to keep him? It’s not as easy as saying they can keep him because he’ll be a restricted free agent in 2010. To hold the right to match any free-agent offers Morrison might get as a restricted free agent in 2010, when many clubs are stockpiling salary-cap space, the Lakers would have to make Morrison the qualifying offer that is attached to his ongoing rookie contract.

That qualifying offer is already determined to be 30 percent more than Morrison will make in the fourth season of his rookie contract in 2009-10 (Charlotte exercised the option on that season before this season, apparently with the objective of trading him). That qualifying offer is substantial: nearly $7 million. It’s pretty unfathomable that Morrison will be that good and that useful to the Lakers by that time to merit that high a salary in a season when the Lakers are currently committed to Kobe Bryant’s $24.8 million, Pau Gasol’s $17.8 million and Andrew Bynum’s $13.8 million. (By contrast, Jordan Farmar’s preset qualifying offer that season is a no-brainer $2.9 million, which the Lakers would obviously be willing to guarantee to make Farmar a restricted free agent.)

By comparison, Sasha Vujacic will get $5.5 million that season. Is it conceivable that Morrison is better than Vujacic in a year and a half? Well, Michael Jordan did draft Morrison ahead of Brandon Roy, so maybe Morrison will become better than Brandon Roy in a year a half! (Sarcasm here, for the record.)

More likely in the Lakers’ ideal world, Morrison shows some signs of improvement while toiling in obscurity outside the Lakers’ rotation the rest of this season (and learns something about winning in the NBA). The Lakers believe that their rehab aces on staff will be able to build up Morrison’s physical strength and agility that have been sapped in part by his torn ACL in October 2007.

If he can become a minor contributor next season, then it might make a lot of sense for him to re-sign with the Lakers (with an eye toward further future improvement) even after they don’t offer him that lofty qualifying offer to make in a 2010 restricted free agent. He could still re-sign as unrestricted free agent for fair market value because he likes the Lakers or out of loyalty to them for reviving his faltering pro career.

But you can now see why the Lakers didn’t make this trade just counting on getting a lot from Morrison down the road. If it works out that way somehow, all the better.

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